Governance

Board of Directors

The board of directors is a body of elected members responsible for the governance, leadership and strategy of the co-operative. It is accountable to the shareholders of the ICOS for the overall operational and financial performance of the co-operative.

To learn more about ICOS governance structures click here.

President

The President is responsible for ensuring the effective and proficient effective working of the Board. The President ensures that Board agendas adequately cover key areas of governance, leadership and strategy. The Presidentis also responsible that the Board of Directors receive relevant and timely information to assist in effective decision making at board level. The current President of ICOS is Mr Bertie O’Leary.

Sub-Committees

ICOS has three main sub-committees, the Dairy Committee, the Marts Committee and the Co-operative Enterprise Committee (comprising of Rural Business Expert Committee). These expert committees are tasked with developing policy positions in their respective areas of competence and to recommend these policies for acceptance to the Board.

Chief Executive Officer

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is responsible for the day-to-day management of ICOS and the ICOS team. Other responsibilities include the formulation of strategy and policy for submission and approval by the Board of Directors. The current CEO of ICOS is Mr Seamus O’Donohoe.

Co-op Secretary

The Secretary is responsible to the Board for the convening of meeting of the Board, keeping minutes of meetings, seeing that the Society’s Rules are adhered to and looking after the Share Register. The Secretary has an obligation to give effect to decisions made by the Board and any General Meeting. Co-operative Consultancy Services (CSS) Ltd is the Corporate Secretary of ICOS.

Auditors

The role and responsibilities of the auditor rests in the backdrop of the Board’s responsibilities. The auditor confirms whether in their opinion the Board’s responsibilities have been met and the trading results and the financial position of the Society reported in the financial statements are accurately reflected on a materiality basis. ICOS’s current auditor is KPMG.

ICOS AT A GLANCE

ICOS member co-ops and their associated companies have >150,000 individual members, 12,000 employees in Ireland, (a further 24,000 abroad), and combined turnover of €12 billion
ICOS has three offices - our Head office at Merrion Square in Dublin, our Regional office in Cork City, and we also have an EU office in Brussels
ICOS represents co-operatives on over fifty national, international and intergovernmental organisations and bodies, such as Pobal, Teagasc, National Dairy Council, Irish Dairy Board, Dairy Research Trust, and COPA-COGECA,
ICOS is governed by a Board of Directors. We also have three elected expert sub-committees representing our members across the Dairy, Livestock, and Co-operative Enterprise sectors